The New American Civil War

A lot of people have begun talking about the New American Civil War lately. I first realized it was coming about a year ago, and I’ve been looking for the catalyst that will launch it ever since. In an effort to understand what would cause our nation to turn against itself, I decided to take a closer look at what caused the FIRST Civil war – and I was surprised by what I found.

Now, the only thing that stuck with me from my public school education was that the Civil War was fought over slavery. Maybe it’s just me, and you remembered all the other reasons for the war, but if not here’s a refresher. The Civil War was also caused by:

1. Economic and social differences between the North and the South.
2. States versus federal rights.
3. Growth of the Abolition Movement.
4. The election of Abraham Lincoln.

As I read, I was struck by the similarities to our current political and social climate. I’m going to go a bit deeper and look at the parallels that exist today to show why I think we are closer than ever to a Civil War, and why it may be unavoidable at this point.

1. Economic and social differences between the North and the South
= Economic and social differences between Conservatives and Liberals

Instead of the divide between North and South, today we have Red States vs Blue States. The social differences between the two are growing every day, and the polarization is becoming more apparent all the time. Soon we may consider the differences between “us” and “them” to be irreconcilable. In addition, the Great Recession has led to more and more people becoming financially unstable. As both unemployment and food prices rise, more and more people are becoming desperate for ways to meet their basic needs. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and when the time comes that people are willing to do anything to meet those needs, it’s convenient for them to have someone on the other side of the divide to point to as a target.

The Attorney General has sent warnings to at least some of these states, trying to get them to back down. Surprise, surprise! The federal government doesn’t like that the states are standing up for their constitutional rights and protecting themselves from tyrannical government legislation! The attempt of the federal government to exert more control as the states attempt to hold onto their rights creates tension on a national level.

Remember that whole “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” thing? Well, we are divided and we are falling! Having different opinions, views, and thoughts are healthy for a society. Polarization (it’s black or white, right or wrong, all or nothing) is dangerous. The current issues that I see that are polarizing the nation are Obamacare, gun control, homosexual marriage, abortion, welfare states, and the federal deficit. It’s already easy to find people who speak in violent terms about their opponents on these issues, especially online, and in some cases the violence has erupted into the real world. Is it really so hard to imagine that larger-scale violence might follow?

4. The Election of Abraham Lincoln = The Election of Barack Obama

Does this even need an explanation? I do find it ironic that the President setting a spark to the powder keg is at the opposite end of the spectrum politically from Lincoln, not to mention that as a black man, Obama owes his ability to be president to Lincoln. Remember when he was re-elected and hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on whitehouse.gov to have their states secede from the Union? This is something that would have been unthinkable ten years ago and is a major sign that the unity of the country is crumbling beneath our feet.

So, there you have it. We are on the precipice of war, what really brought that home was the state rights controversy happening right now. Remember that the whole slavery issue came to a head because the federal government tried to force its views onto the states, and the states didn’t like it. (Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that slavery is good, and that those states were in the right.) What I’m saying is that the same situations exist now as they did then, the federal government is trying to push its views on others, they are trying to negate the states’ rights. They are using every dirty tactic they can think of to mock and bully anyone who disagrees, comparing them to tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists who are scared that black helicopters are going to take them away.

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4 Responses

Were not gonna do a damn thing about it. If you start this wear the South will lose again. Also you will be committing treason again the United States of America. If you become the enemy and a traitor I will have problem hunting you down a war criminal.

Your analysis is flawed. The four other factors you named ALL distill back to slavery.

1. Economic and social differences between the North and the South. One was rapidly urbanizing and industrializing. The other was a primarily agrarian society with ag production built firmly on the institution of slavery.

2. States versus federal rights. What did they disagree about? Slavery.

3. Growth of the Abolition Movement. What did they care about? Slavery.

4. The election of Abraham Lincoln. Why did southern politicians despise him? He was anti-slavery (though not at the time of his election an ardent abolitionist).

For the sake of fun, though, let’s say the conditions are ripe. How exactly would states secede and fight in this modern era? Distances are a lot shorter and we are far more interconnected than in 1861.

The military is no longer organized by geography, so how would the armed forces bifurcate? You can’t honestly expect the seceding states’ national guard forces to stand against the active-duty US military.

How would the breakaway states have time to organize? Air strikes against key infrastructure targets could be launched in a span of hours. And the US military would have the full weight of the Navy behind it as well.

How many people would need to support secession before it happened? How would it possibly be allowed to get that far? In the 19th century, the limits of information transmission and power projection meant things could unfold over time. Today we’re in a world of Twitter, where things are known within minutes or even seconds.

Barring really, really, really bad things happening, I don’t see any realistic way a new civil war could come about.

Really, really bad things are happening, some choose to see them, some choose to ignore them. Don’t be surprised if you are someone ignoring them and are caught unaware by a war. I’m sure people during the first one were saying nothing is wrong, you all are crazy too, well… I guess their opinion didn’t matter much.